Is your data backed up properly? Experiencing data loss isn’t necessarily uncommon: A 2016 survey of more than 400 workers around the world found that roughly 27% reported losing business data from “several times” up to “many times,” according to CloudBerry Lab. However, the same survey also found that 36% of enterprises don’t back up their data at all, and 49% had only one copy of their organization’s data.
Losing access to data because of a cyberattack or another disaster could be a life-or-death matter for your business, so having a backup solution in place is essential if you want to ensure your IT infrastructure (and your company’s future) stays as secure as possible.
Before we explain the eighth step of the Stratosphere Networks process of safeguarding your infrastructure, here are the entries detailing the first seven steps if you’d like to review any of them or if you’re new to this series.
1. Performing a security audit
2. Creating and enforcing IT security policies
3. Updating your anti-virus solution
4. Updating workstations and servers
5. Guarding your email with a hosted spam solution
6. Implementing a hosted DNS solution
Once you’ve completed the first seven steps, you’re well on your way to achieving an optimal level of security. However, your work isn’t done yet: Implementing a backup solution in case of a data loss event is an important step you won’t want to skip
Why Your Business Needs Backup
If you don’t back up your data, your business could be in big trouble if/when disaster strikes. Consider how much not having access to data might cost you in lost productivity. On average, an unplanned data center outage costs $8,851 per minute, according to the 2016 Cost of Data Center Outages report from the Ponemon Institute and Emerson Power Network.
Ransomware – a type of malware that cyber criminals use to hold data hostage – has also been on the rise in recent years. Attackers use it to encrypt a company’s files and then demand money for the decryption key.
A 2016 survey of companies in the U.S., Canada, U.K, and Germany found that almost 40% of companies were the victims of ransomware attacks during the last year, according to Malwarebytes. Upwards of a third of the businesses hit by ransomware reported lost revenue, and 20% halted business entirely, the study found.
Ransomware can end up causing massive monetary losses. For example, the CryptoWall version 3 threat was responsible for more than $325 million in damages globally, according to the Cyber Threat Alliance. Backing up your data can help your business prepare for a potential ransomware attack, since up-to-date backups can allow you to still access/restore your data without having to give in to the cyber criminals’ demands.
Don’t Forget to Test
It’s not enough, however, to simply implement a backup solution for your data. It’s also important to ensure that you test your backup services regularly to make sure that they actually work. If there’s an issue, you don’t want to discover it in the wake of a ransomware attack or another disaster that’s left your business unable to access data critical to your continued operations.
Once you’ve backed up your data, you’re ready to move on to the ninth step in the process of making sure your IT infrastructure is secure. Check back with us next week to learn more about it.
In the meantime, if you’d like more information about backup and disaster recovery solutions, our expert techs can answer any questions you might have. We offer backup services including encrypted file transfer and storage, data compression, easy to use backup software, file recovery from anywhere, and more. If you’d like to know more about backup solutions available for your business, contact us today by calling 877-599-3999 or emailing sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
